Heuvelton girls wins showdown

LISBON - Entering Thursdays matchup of NAC West contenders at Lisbon, Heuvelton Coach Girls Soccer Coach Gus Burns said his team was very nervous and looking to make a statement.

His Lady Bulldogs showed no sign of the first part of their coachs impression and carried out the second to the max posting an impressive 4-0 victory.

It seemed to me that the girls were nervous before the game because of our first game with Lisbon (tie at OFA Tournament), said Coach Burns after his number 10 state-ranked Lady Bulldogs (8-0-2) raised their division-leading record to 7-0-1 and dropped the 6-2-2 Knights to 5-2-1 in the division.

The girls were looking to make a statement and to me they did that. We used a different setup looking to get more pressure on their net.

Hammond (7-0-1) stayed one point behind Heuvelton receiving a forfeit from Clifton-Fine which was unable to field a team because of injuries. In forfeiting to Hammond, C-F officials indicated that the team would not complete the rest of the season.

Heuvelton 4 - Lisbon 0: The Bulldogs generated a great deal of pressure from the wings with the ball carrying ability and powerful serves and crosses by Alexis Weidner and Hannah Thornhill.

Heuvelton netted the eventual winning goal in the eighth minute of the game when Erin Kennedy scored from Logan Tallman.

The lead quickly became 3-0 at the half.

With 4:47 remaining before intermission, Weidner freed herself up along the baseline and drilled a hard cross which bounced off a defender into the net for an own goal. Just under two minutes later, Thornhill took a pass from Nathalie Barr and lofted a perfectly struck shot from the right wing back into the left corner of the net.

Karina Warren scored the only goal of the second half, with 3:48 remaining in the game, chipping a shot off the right goalpost and into the net after taking a centering pass from Brianna Donnelly.

Paige McCormick handled three shots for shutout and Jackie Sovie finished with 13 saves for Lisbon.

Heuvelton beat us down the wings and in the middle of the field. We just never got into any flow, said Lisbon Coach Scott Richardson.

The Knights best scoring chance came with 28 minutes to play when Maeve Bowdish ran onto a back pass and drove a hard shot just wide of the net.